As much as I wanted to make the playoffs, as I felt the NFC was wide open. We needed changes. And hopefully those changes work out well

The final four this year, The Patriots, Vikings, Jaguars, and Eagles all seem to dominate up front. The Jaguars are known for being super physical and disrupting O-lines. The Vikings were known all year for having a great line on both sides of the ball. The Patriots obviously, protect Tom easily. Aside from the first half yesterday, Belicheck made adjustments and Brady had all day to throw.

And then obviously the Eagles, they are by far the best up front on both sides of the ball. Behind that all 4 teams had good to really good running backs.

So as our Hawks look to return to championship form, the burden is now on Pete, Schotty and Solari to bring that dominance to our team. What about everyone else? What have you taken away from the playoffs that can apply to our team.

Pats 46 rushing yards and Jags 101. I'll be looking to see if Philly can run the ball vs Pats and if they'll stick with it. You know the Pats will try to stop the run and try to make Philly throw. If they succeed with that and make it a throw fest, Pats win.

Pats are going to fall off a cliff when Brady and Belichick retire. Trading JG means they have no one in their system anymore to take over for Brady, at least for now. Plus it seems like they're losing both assistant HC's on top of some other positional coaches. The AFC east doesn't look like it's getting better any time soon, so likely barring injury another easy path for them to AFC championship. Jags should be better next year, that division actually might be pretty competitive with Watson in Houston.

Vikings will need a QB. Keenum did some nice things but is quite limited. Not sure if they're going to keep him, Bridgewater, and Bradford. Eagles have the blueprint to be good for awhile but also likely losing a lot of coaches.

What I learned is Wilson may not be as crucial to our success as I once thought. See Keenum, Bortles, and Foles for prime examples of what a well balanced offense run within their strengths can accomplish with mediocre QB's (or sub-par as Earl put it).

Seymour wrote:What I learned is Wilson may not be as crucial to our success as I once thought. See Keenum, Bortles, and Foles for prime examples of what a well balanced offense run within their strengths can accomplish with mediocre QB's (or sub-par as Earl put it).

Foles sure didn't look mediocre last night.. Dude was on his game. The Eagles play that that in two week even Tom Terrific can't help them..

Seymour wrote:What I learned is Wilson may not be as crucial to our success as I once thought. See Keenum, Bortles, and Foles for prime examples of what a well balanced offense run within their strengths can accomplish with mediocre QB's (or sub-par as Earl put it).

Foles sure didn't look mediocre last night.. Dude was on his game. The Eagles play that that in two week even Tom Terrific can't help them..

True, but Matt Flynn still holds the Packers single game TD and yardage records over Rodgers, Farve, Starr...ect.

Quite a few mediocre QB's have had at least one pretty good season at some point.

Seymour wrote:What I learned is Wilson may not be as crucial to our success as I once thought. See Keenum, Bortles, and Foles for prime examples of what a well balanced offense run within their strengths can accomplish with mediocre QB's (or sub-par as Earl put it).

I see what you're saying Seymour, but I disagree to some extent. Without HFA, I doubt the Eagles win a single playoff game, and it was Wentz who played a huge role in getting them to 11-2 before he got hurt.

Keenum's limitations caught up to him in the end, although the Vikings offensive gamelan wasn't good either. Bortles had the Jags cruising, but couldn't make the plays when it came to crunch time.

I think these teams show us that we need to improve our playcalling and gameplanning to take stress off Russ. It's still good to know we can rely on him to make magic when most other QBs fold.

Seymour wrote:What I learned is Wilson may not be as crucial to our success as I once thought. See Keenum, Bortles, and Foles for prime examples of what a well balanced offense run within their strengths can accomplish with mediocre QB's (or sub-par as Earl put it).

But you also learned that to dominate for a 15 year period, having a good team around a sub par QB doesn't work...........and I guarantee you that's what the Vikings and Jags found out this weekend, and why I'd be shocked if Bortles or Keenum are back next year.

Sure teams can make the playoffs, and maybe even sneak into the NFC/AFC Championship game or the SB with a mediocre QB. But they usually don't win, and that model of success is certainly not sustainable.

Seymour wrote:What I learned is Wilson may not be as crucial to our success as I once thought. See Keenum, Bortles, and Foles for prime examples of what a well balanced offense run within their strengths can accomplish with mediocre QB's (or sub-par as Earl put it).

I see what you're saying Seymour, but I disagree to some extent. Without HFA, I doubt the Eagles win a single playoff game, and it was Wentz who played a huge role in getting them to 11-2 before he got hurt.

Keenum's limitations caught up to him in the end, although the Vikings offensive gamelan wasn't good either. Bortles had the Jags cruising, but couldn't make the plays when it came to crunch time.

I think these teams show us that we need to improve our playcalling and gameplanning to take stress off Russ. It's still good to know we can rely on him to make magic when most other QBs fold.

Yep, until 2017 showed us that taking that for granted gets you an early exit.

All these mediocre QB's look top 10 with good protection.

We turned our QB into a human ball rolled up into the fetal position for 1/2 the game by NOT protecting him.

Seymour wrote:What I learned is Wilson may not be as crucial to our success as I once thought. See Keenum, Bortles, and Foles for prime examples of what a well balanced offense run within their strengths can accomplish with mediocre QB's (or sub-par as Earl put it).

Foles sure didn't look mediocre last night.. Dude was on his game. The Eagles play that that in two week even Tom Terrific can't help them..

True, but Matt Flynn still holds the Packers single game TD and yardage records over Rodgers, Farve, Starr...ect.

Quite a few mediocre QB's have had at least one pretty good season at some point.

Including Foles himself a few years ago....27TD 2INT with almost 3000 yards.

It's almost impossible to win on the road vs a good team when you have a mediocre to bad QB.

Keenum looked great in Minny, but on the road vs a good D he got beat by 30.....

To be honest the Vikings offense has looked pretty meh since that loss in Carolina. 6TD 3INT in the 5 games following that loss. Their OL also had injuries toward the end of the year with not much depth. They had to shuffle the OL around a bit towards the end of the year and the OL was just average this year compared to god awful the year before.

Unless one of those 3 QBs take less money or a short deal I dont see any of the 3 coming back to the Vikings next year.

Vikings have 60 Million in cap and they arent losing much to FA other than Mckinnon, Bridgewater, Keenum, Bradford and Newman who is going to be 40 years old playing CB

They may have to hand out extensions though...Hunter, Barr, Kendricks and Diggs are all FA NEXT year althoughTBH they should just let Barr and Hunter go....Keep Kendricks and Diggs

I learned that Seattle isn't the only team that goes conservative waaayyyyyy too early in a game.....I also learned that Seattle isn't the only team to abandon whatever is working and then lose a game because of it.

Seymour wrote:What I learned is Wilson may not be as crucial to our success as I once thought. See Keenum, Bortles, and Foles for prime examples of what a well balanced offense run within their strengths can accomplish with mediocre QB's (or sub-par as Earl put it).

I see what you're saying Seymour, but I disagree to some extent. Without HFA, I doubt the Eagles win a single playoff game, and it was Wentz who played a huge role in getting them to 11-2 before he got hurt.

Keenum's limitations caught up to him in the end, although the Vikings offensive gamelan wasn't good either. Bortles had the Jags cruising, but couldn't make the plays when it came to crunch time.

I think these teams show us that we need to improve our playcalling and gameplanning to take stress off Russ. It's still good to know we can rely on him to make magic when most other QBs fold.

The Jags had great success running the ball in the first half. Did anyone else notice that when the run plays stopped working in the 2nd half, the Jags stayed with them until the end? They didn't adjust and or change the plan of attack and at the bitter end tried to rely on the pass. No mixing it up, no change of direction. Felt a lot like the Seahawks of 2016, and 2017.

My take away is that NFL coaches have huge ego's and want to do things their way, and especially Pete Carrol, if it doesn't work were going to keep doing it until it does work. And when it doesn't work again, we will try to keep doing it, until it's obvious it isnt, then we play back yard ball and let the chips fall where they may.

The Hawks could have been a player in this years playoffs, but PC needs to coach to the strengths of his team. Unfortunately, Pete Carrol had a moron dictating the offensive line and run game the past 5 years and a OC who either had no balls to call PC out for the BS or was a major part of the problem.

semiahmoo wrote:That Tom Brady is the greatest QB to ever play the game and he continues to make stars of receivers who would otherwise be marginal NFL contributors.

The guy is freaking amazing. Period.

As good as Brady is...its the system, organization, and Bilicheck.

Without that Brady is just another Peyton Manning with 2 ...maybe 3 Superbowl wins in his career. Has to be the luckiest QB alive in NFL history with the GOAT coach and feasting on a weak AFC East and a TOP HEAVY AFC where there are really only 2 other teams to compete against most years